Summer plot soil builder
- Thread starter Bladesmith
- Start date
GMan5465
5 year old buck +
Yep, I may have to revisit my plan. I’d like to get a normal rain year and see what happens. I’ve got about 350 pounds of cover crop seed remaining so I will plant that but maybe experiment with the remaining acres. I’ve got rye planted over the top now that I could maintain until the fall planting. I’ll have to check out the real world blend.
SD51555
5 year old buck +
I’ve planted it at the end of June and had it be a #1 draw in November. You gotta find the sweet spot on your land between desirability and durability.
Deer will eat darn near anything. That’s the easy part. The hard part is when.
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BuckSutherland
5 year old buck +
If you want a real "soil builder" and something that is gonna help in a drought and benefit you for many years to come there is only 1 correct answer and that is MANURE. Manure is better than all these other suggestions combined and its not even close.
jsasker007
5 year old buck +
Which manure would you say is the best? Cow, chicken/turkey, hogs?
jsasker007
5 year old buck +
Deer leave quite a bit behind in my food plots. In the spring you can hardly take a step without stepping in deer shit. Wonder how much value that has?
BuckSutherland
5 year old buck +
I would take any manure I could get, except horse manure. Chicken or turkey shit might be the most practical for a food plot. Hog manure is probably the least practical cause its in slurry form most often. Cattle manure would be great if you have a way to get it into the woods. The big three manures that I mentioned are all great for different reasons and I wouldn't turn any of them down.
Wind Gypsy
5 year old buck +
I need to start asking my neighbors if they or if they know of someone else that would spread some manure for me..
jsasker007
5 year old buck +
I think a person has a better chance at getting manure from poultry farmers vs cattle farmers. The cattle farmers often use the manure for other things they have to raise the cattle where the poultry farmer doesn't fertilize his own fields for the grazing poultry. Poultry is just raised in a building and only leaves to go to market. jmho
Crimson n' Camo
5 year old buck +
What about if your field draws in a lot of birds in the summer??
jsasker007
5 year old buck +
Right on! That's what I'm wondering is how much natural fertilizer is there and how much is needed? I've got a few dozen turkeys in my plots all summer long also.
BuckSutherland
5 year old buck +
A decent shot of poultry litter would be approximately 2 tons per acre. Going rate around where I live is about $75-80/ ton. I was talking with my neighbor today. He is an organic farmer. He is applying 3.5 tons of chicken shit for his corn acres this year. If you can find finishing barn hog manure 3,000-4,000 gallons per acre would be a high rate. Hog manure can get really hot at 4,000+ gallons per acre if the barn doesn't have a bunch of water leaks. If you're looking to spread bedded pen pack cattle manure you would want a minimum of 15 tons to the acre, but 20 tons would be much better. 30 tons per acre would be on the high end. 30 tons would only be a few spreader loads.
As far as weeds go I am not worried. I've seen tillage germinate way more weeds than manure.
This picture is probably 20-25 ton rate. I turn some of my worst ground into my best ground with a few manure applications.
As far as weeds go I am not worried. I've seen tillage germinate way more weeds than manure.
This picture is probably 20-25 ton rate. I turn some of my worst ground into my best ground with a few manure applications.
bigboreblr
5 year old buck +
They say poultry litter raises the pH of the soil a bit. Horse and cow manure will likely have weed seed in it. I'd still take it though.
Do you need fertilizer? Or you would like things a bit better with it? IF you soil is lacking major nutrients like phosphorus or potassium, a bag or two of fertilizer is about the same nutrient content as a ton if not tons of fertilizer. a 8ft pickup bed level is 2.5 cubic yards. About 1800lbs of dry manure. Wet manure can easily be another 600lbs weight. manure is .6-.2-.5. That's 11 lbs nitrogen, 4lbs of phosphorus and 9lbs of potassium. 1.5 bags of 15-15-15 for nitrogen, 1/2 bag for P, 1.2 bags of potassium. Manure offers alot of other things, but if your thinking manure for fertilizer, this is how manure's competition stacks up.
Week before labor day is about what I do. I do early to mid august in the Adirondacks old USDA zone 3b, now 4a. I do rye at home labor day weekend zone 5b, now 6a 1 mile away from a large river in NY.
You can mix some wheat or oats with your rye to have the deer focus on that and let the rye mature. Some deer eat rye at most stages of life, some deer like it when it's young. Might be options.
You can always add more rye in the spring.
I am a 2-3 acre food plot guy. MY cheap local source for rye has it for about 2 weeks in early august. I always get 2 more bags than I need. IF the summer blend goes bust from drought, make sure you can get some rye locally. Oats work in a pinch too, and are easier to find. I've used feed whole oats and it germinated well every time.
Do you need fertilizer? Or you would like things a bit better with it? IF you soil is lacking major nutrients like phosphorus or potassium, a bag or two of fertilizer is about the same nutrient content as a ton if not tons of fertilizer. a 8ft pickup bed level is 2.5 cubic yards. About 1800lbs of dry manure. Wet manure can easily be another 600lbs weight. manure is .6-.2-.5. That's 11 lbs nitrogen, 4lbs of phosphorus and 9lbs of potassium. 1.5 bags of 15-15-15 for nitrogen, 1/2 bag for P, 1.2 bags of potassium. Manure offers alot of other things, but if your thinking manure for fertilizer, this is how manure's competition stacks up.
Week before labor day is about what I do. I do early to mid august in the Adirondacks old USDA zone 3b, now 4a. I do rye at home labor day weekend zone 5b, now 6a 1 mile away from a large river in NY.
You can mix some wheat or oats with your rye to have the deer focus on that and let the rye mature. Some deer eat rye at most stages of life, some deer like it when it's young. Might be options.
You can always add more rye in the spring.
I am a 2-3 acre food plot guy. MY cheap local source for rye has it for about 2 weeks in early august. I always get 2 more bags than I need. IF the summer blend goes bust from drought, make sure you can get some rye locally. Oats work in a pinch too, and are easier to find. I've used feed whole oats and it germinated well every time.
The deer manure in my plots looks particularly robust this winter! Have been wondering how I could work this into a conversation here lol!
I have a turkey farmer near me. They knife it in to fields around me. Holy. Hell. Nothing smells like that.
Brian662
5 year old buck +
They turn turkey shit into composted soil a few miles from my house. About once a year when the wind is strong enough from the right direction, it'll about keep you in the house. Couldn't imagine living any closer to that place.
Diesel5610
5 year old buck +
I plant rye as a nurse crop for my fall planted clover plots and they go in August 15 ideally. Deer are in them the same as my straight rye plots that I planted on Labor Day. I just started planting them all whene I can get them in between August 15 and Labor Day in zone 5 on the western NY and PA line. Deer like them just fine.
TreeDaddy
5 year old buck +
jsasker007
5 year old buck +
Sorry, looking for organic and nothing man made.
